Giridih, April 28: Yesterday was a memorable date in the history of Giridih with almost 300 weddings taking place all over the district.

Never before has the small town been witness to such a large number of weddings across the 12 blocks on a single day in the last 10 years, said residents.

Along with the residences of the brides and grooms, hotels and dharamshalas, the weddings were also held at prominent religious centres like Jharkhand Dhaam, Harihar Dhaam and Dhukhia Mahadev temple.

Commenting on the reason behind the large number of weddings on April 27, Hiralal Pathak, a priest, told The Telegraph: “As there are no auspicious dates for marriages in the next three months, we had to perform several marriages last night”.

“Because of the lengthy rituals, each priest could not perform more than one wedding. But my two brothers and I performed marriages at different places yesterday.”

The scorching heat and rising temperature could not dampen the spirit of the people taking part in the weddings.

Others were kept cheerful by the business that so many weddings generated.

All these weddings led to good business for several people, including priests, decorators, band parties, caterers and utensil sellers.

However, the masses had a harrowing experience.

Neither was there any vehicle available on the roads for the local residents nor were there sweets in the shops.

Bhola Prasad, the owner of Bhola Caterer, said: “I had five teams all booked for different weddings last night.”

The roads were chock-a-block with several baratis moving towards the wedding venues around the same time.

“It took more than an hour to travel a kilometre last night because of the traffic snarls caused by baratis,” said Kamal Nayan, a resident.

Meanwhile, the amount of tilak (money given to the groom’s side by the brides’ family) also touched the sky in Giridih. Families of several brides had to pay between Rs 20 and 40 lakh as tilak to the groom’s family in these weddings. However, these transactions could not be established as none of the families wished to go on-record.

These weddings once again proved that Giridih, once considered economically backward, has prospered, at least for some people.